292 ON DISPOSING PLANTS IN MYSSE9. 



ARTICLE III. 



ON DISPOSING PLANTS IN MASSES. 



BY AMICUS. 



The system of disposing plants in masses, so frequently and ably 

 advocated in this Magazine, is becoming very general, and certainly 

 produces a much better effect than the tedious monotony of an in- 

 discriminate mixture. In the practice, however, of this superior 

 method, it should be remembered that the groups and masses ought 

 to be considered as parts of the whole, and as such, should harmonize 

 and unite with each other, with regard to form and colour. Without 

 attention to this point, the several disunited and independent parts 

 will no more form a gardenesque landscape, than the colours arranged 

 on the painter's palette will of themselves form a picture. I have 

 known more than one small garden spoiled by a disregard of pro- 

 portion, the shrubs and flowers being disposed in groups of far too 

 large a size. In such a situation, a single plant, or a group of two 

 or three, must be considered to bear the same proportion to the whole, 

 as much larger masses or groups bear in the case of a park. Al- 

 though I approve, as I have said above, of the principle of placing 

 different species in groups and masses, I think that there are cases 

 in which, like all other principles, it may be carried too far. In a 

 small flower garden, which I very much admire, I have seen a group, 

 composed of myrtles and China roses, planted alternately in quincunx 

 order, the larger plants being in the centre ; and in my opinion, a 

 better effect was produced than if the two species had been in separate 

 masses; the rich green colour of the myrtles' leaves, forming a 

 ground to the beautiful white of the mingled colour, and the associ- 

 ations connected with both, made an impression upon me which I 

 shall not easily forget. In the same garden there is a group con- 

 sisting of an acacia, the broader and more shadowy plumes of the 

 sumach, and the pendulous clusters of flowers of the laburnum, com- 

 posing a little picture of the most highly finished character. 



Gardeners might find much instruction by an examination of 

 cottage gardens, in many of which I have seen a degree of good taste 

 that is not always found where there is more reason to expect it. In 

 such gardens, it often happens that very striking effects are produced 

 by a judicious disposition of plants of the most common description, 





